Today, Tsunami Books of Eugene releases its first-ever published title. It’s Ken Babbs’ “Cronies: A Burlesque”, which details his friendship with author Ken Kesey and their founding of the counterculture group, the Merry Pranksters in the 1960s.
Babbs recently talked with KLCC’s Brian Bull. Bull asked Babbs how “Cronies” came to be published.
Babbs: Well, I had a previous book published called “Who Shot the Water Buffalo?”which went through the traditional New York publishing route, and I have an agent. So when I finished “Cronies”, my agent tried to sell it and nobody in the regular publishing industry would touch it. Because it's all about the opportunity to make money and they did not see it as being any kind of thing that fell into any of their categories, you know, of mysteries, romance, action, all that kind of stuff. So everybody turned it down.
It was only through the luck of knowing Scott Landfield at Tsunami Books and talking to him about it and him saying that ‘Well, I want to start a press. Let's make “Cronies” the first book out of the press.’ I said, ‘Fine!’ and. It's been wonderful and perfect in every way. And it proves something that everybody should know, is that we don't have to go through New York City or the East Coast to accomplish things. We have put out a book here which is better I think, than anything they would ever have done.
Bull: Every author wants their book to be appreciated and read by everyone of course, but is there any one particular audience you'd like to read “Cronies”?
Babbs: Well, there's a huge audience out there in terms of the Deadheads, by the millions. Pranksters now are into their fifth generation pranksters, they're out there. And then I have the literary crowd from the knowing about Kesey and me and the books we've published. Then just general reading people who like to read because this is a very readable book.
Bull: “Cronies”, opens with Jack Kerouac unfurling this long scroll of his travels and perspectives, which would eventually be published as “On the Road” in 1957. And the fact that you included this at the beginning of your novel “Cronies”, Ken…is this to make the case that “On the Road” was a launch point for the Merry Pranksters?
Babbs: It was a big influence on us, yes. As writers, Kesey and me and everybody else that wrote, because it was the idea of writing just off the cuff, without thinking ahead of time, but just laying it down. You know, when “On the Road” came out, it was heavily edited. And lately, maybe a year or so ago, they've published a volume of “On the Road”, the original scroll. So I got that and read that and oh my God, it’s a thousand times better than the edited one. There’s stuff in there that they took out.
One of the best ones is Kerouac was in this hotel room in Denver and (Neal) Cassady and (Allen) Ginsberg were sitting on the bed, naked, cross legged, facing one another and rapping back and forth. And Kerouac? You know, he must have photographic memory to be able to do this -- he had that whole rap in that scroll. They didn't put any of that in the edited version, but it's fantastic. (laughs)
Bull: I really enjoyed the escapades of you and Kesey and all the Pranksters, whether it was the early formative years when you're getting to know each other. He's coaching you on your wrestling moves, or the bus trip, of course had a lot of misadventures and there's a lot of wordplay on the road, exposition, a lot of just… just craziness. And there's this kinetic energy that comes from just reading every page. Did you kind of feel that energy as you wrote it?
Babbs: Yes, very much so. It was it was really an easy book for me to write. You know, my wife Eileen, taught English at South Eugene High School for 19 years. In American Lit, they read “(One Flew Over the) Cuckoo’s Nest” and in AP English they read, “Sometimes a Great Notion.” And she'd have me come in and talk to every class for 19 years and so I accumulated a whole pile of notes I'd make before I’d go in and give me an idea what I was talking about. And I was looking them over, I saw that this could be a book. And so I started right off with just like I did with the talks in the English classes, talking about how Kesey and I met, the escapades we had and then I just kept adding on all the other people that we have done stuff with over the years, 43 years, from 1958 to 2001 when he died.
Bull: Where do you live these days, and what do you do with your time?
Babbs: Well, I’ve got six acres of property of Lost Creek, right on the creek right outside of Dexter. And we have a milk cow and her calf, and a great little dog. And the place has got a lot of trees on it, and we have a woodstove so I really love cutting firewood, I’m out on the woods a lot, cutting firewood. It’s really good to go out and do that. Now my publicist, Dennis McNally’s got me doing an interview every day this month.
Bull: How many interviews have you done so far, counting this one?
Babbs: Oh, I don’t have any idea, but lots.
Bull: Well, good. Well, Ken, I wish you luck with your book. And I really appreciate you coming in to talk to me today.
Babbs: Well, thank you. I should say that the book is really big. I'm really happy with it. And I'm really happy to do all these, I write for the reader. I don't write for me, I want people to read and like what I’ve done.
Bull: Alright, well Ken Babbs, thank you very much again and take care.
Babbs: Bye bye.
Note: You can hear a special extended interview with Babbs where he talks about the origin of the "Merry Pranksters", the "Looking for a Kool Place" bus journey, his friendship with Ken Kesey, and the importance of finding the groove here.
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